A noticeably flustered Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Tuesday struggled to deliver a coherent answer about her involvement in pushing President Joe Biden out of the presidential race, leaving some viewers concerned about her well-being.
In the run-up to Biden’s exit last month, insiders remarked on the former House speaker’s deep involvement with mobilizing leaders in the Democratic Party against Biden, laying out poll results showing that a loss to former President Donald Trump was all but inevitable. Asked how Vice President Kamala Harris would be a better nominee, Pelosi delivered a winding, stuttering answer that appeared to touch on assault rifles, COVID shots, and “chips and science” all without bringing home much of a point.
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“Whether it’s well the first bill… the first bill… that protect, our, uh, uh…” she said, pointing to her shoulder. “Assault, uh, bill, uh,” prompting the host to find the word for her, replying “Covid.” That seems to reset Pelosi who continued, “Shots in the arm, money in the pockets, children in school, people that work, the infrastructure bill, building, building in a way that is respectful of communities, pe-… chips and science.”
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Pelosi, 84, is three years older than President Biden, who faced calls to end his campaign after a soporific debate performance against President Trump that reinforced anxiety among allies about his age. Following the 2022 elections, the powerful California Democrat announced she would be stepping back from the party’s House leadership, though she remains an influential force in the 2024 cycle. She, along with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and former President Barack Obama are all believed to have encouraged Biden to step aside, putting Harris on a glide path to the Democratic Party’s nomination earlier this week.
Her resignation from party leadership came a month after a man broke into her San Francisco home and attacked her husband with a hammer while he slept. Paul Pelosi was admitted to a hospital with severe head injuries following the attack by a conspiracy theorist who was later sentenced to 30 years in prison. Alexandria Pelosi, the couple’s daughter and a documentary filmmaker, said the brush with death was a wake-up call for her mother about the importance of family. “Was this all worth it? For my family? What we went through?” she said of her mother’s 35 years in the House, Forbes reported at the time. “My parents would say yes . . . But for the family, the families are the ones that pay the highest price for this kind of life.”
Despite the sympathy Pelosi and her husband received afterward, she remains one of the most polarizing politicians in recent history. Republicans continue to pillory vulnerable Democrats who are tied to Pelosi but distancing themselves from an unpopular Biden administration this year. Case in point: Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) of Alaska, who recently earned a rare endorsement from the National Rifle Association and touts her opposition to parts of the president’s agenda, including Second Amendment protections and opposition to a federal assault weapons ban.
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